Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Super Bowl Grab Bag: The Leftover Edition

Important note off the bat, if anyone can find a link to Chuck Klosterman's ESPN chat from Friday, it would be greatly appreciated. I looked everywhere but have had no luck as of yet.

A few leftover thoughts from the Super Bowl, which will be brief, since it's been covered in a million other places:

- Yes, the officiating sucked, as it has all playoffs. This was a huge surprise to me as I had always thought that the NFL went to much greater lengths than other leagues to evaluate the performance of their officials, and ensure the best of the best were calling the big games. Sadly, there wasn't an Ed Hochuli or Johnny Greer to be seen in the biggest game of the year.

- In order of egregiousness, giving Roethlisberger the touchdown towards the end of the first half takes the cake, since not only did the line judge blow it, but the replay booth blew it as well. Following that is the clipping penalty on Matt Hassellbeck when he tackled Ike Taylor. I don't have a great eye for what is and isn't holding, which probably means I was qualified to ref this game, but I won't comment further there. As for the pushoff call against D-Jack, I thought it was borderline, but not a blown call. I probably would have let it go under the old hockey "let them play" playoff mantra, but I don't think it's a huge deal.

- It's been said many times before, but it bears repeating, complain all you want about the officiating Seattle fans, but your team still ran horrible two-minute drills at the end of each half, and left a ton of points on the board because of missed field goals and a failure to convert key third downs. The only reason you got back in the game was because of a terrible mistake by Roethlisberger. You had your chances earlier, and you blew it. Deal with it.

- It's nice and all that the backup running back for the Steelers is retiring, but could he have tried to hog the spotlight any more? Is it even possible? Jerome had a good career, and has good stats, but is he really an elite running back? I think not. If he gets in the hall of fame, it should be after contemporaries like Marshall Faulk, Curtis Martin, etc.

- We never got a 20th anniversary remake of Super Bowl Shuffle, but Ben Roethlisberger's evolution into this decade's Jim McMahon is a nice consolation prize. His game reminds me a lot of Jimmy Mac, almost as much as his wild, off-the-field persona. I'm also waiting for sportsbook.com to put odds on the chances that Roethlisberger will set the record for obnoxious, over the top media appearances following a championship year, which is probably held by Johnny Drama (I mean, Damon). Frankly, I'm surprised he let Letterman shave off his beard so soon, I was certain he would hold out until the Queer Eye cameo.

- One final note on Big Ben, he looked terrible for most of the game, which is why I'm predicting he gives a Bode Miller-esque interview sometime this year where he reveals that he played the game hung over.

Finally, in non-Super Bowl News...- Dennis Erickson is coaching the University of Idaho. If I weren't a 49ers fan, I would make a joke about this being a promotion. Instead, I will now go shave with a butcher's knife.

However, Canada has the best strippers in the universe. this has been proven.

Does this explain why we're not spending our time on google?

Seriously, though, thanks for the hookup. I searched the espn site, but not google.

And for anyone who's curious, Klosterman's wrong - Slater was the QB for Bayside. In the episode where his girlfriend from Germany shows up, I distinctly remember him being mentioned as "Quarterback of the Football Team." The man was a modern day Jim Thorpe.